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Lenihan/Cowen 'catastrophic decision'

........on Tuesday, 30 September 2008, when Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, gave a blanket guarantee for the entire banking sector. His decision bounded the other eurozone leaders into following suit. The rest is history.

I would go as far as to classify the decision as one of the most catastrophic political decisions taken in post-war Europe.

Ireland and Greece, too, preferred to cripple their economies for generations to come in order to avoid the political blemish of a default, or even an agreed rescheduling of the sovereign debt. Both countries are fundamentally insolvent – if you assume, as I do, that there will be zero growth for five, or even ten years, with further steep declines in asset prices.

Ironically it will take a newspaper columnist to drill some sense into the electorate. If Munchau's opinion can persuade some other commentators to voice the same they may give us what our national leadership cannot, a general election.

There must be some mistake....the foreign commentators applaud the government's hard decisions, they applaud the Irish populations ability to absorb pain, they say we should have A FF-led national government forever...